The upcoming Tuesday, February 18th spring primary election comes on the heels of last November’s intense Presidential election. Although many are still adjusting to the new Trump Presidency, the spring elections in Wisconsin are incredibly important as they directly impact our communities. Chief among these are the elections for new and incumbent school board candidates. In order to help supply voters with helpful and necessary information on the candidates, both the Waukesha County GOP and the Democratic Party of Waukesha County are promoting separate ‘Meet the Candidates’ events.
The Waukesha County GOP reposted an advertisement for an event at Beer Snobs Ale and Eats, which is set to take place on Wednesday, February 5th between 6 and 8 p.m. Four candidates will be attending the evening event, including Chris Adsit for the Arrowhead School Board, as well as Frank Brunner, Matt McNulty, and John Poulos, who are running for Hartland Lakeside School Board seats. The event is being hosted and paid for by each candidate’s individual campaign financing. Although the GOP is not hosting the event, their promotion has helped indicate their alignment with the candidates involved.
On the other hand, the Democratic Party of Waukesha County is hosting their event at their headquarters. It is scheduled to take place on Saturday, February 8 between 10 and 11:30 a.m. at the Party’s main office located at 336 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Waukesha. Details about who will be attending the event are a bit scant, but guests can expect to “Meet the school board and alder candidates who will be running in our local election this Spring!”
Both the GOP and the Wis Dems have been working hard to get voters to show up on Election Day in February. Spring elections often receive lower turnouts than fall elections do. Although the April 2023 election had record breaking turnout in several counties across the state, this was seen as somewhat unusual. The highly contested Supreme Court race drew out voters in droves, seeing as much as 34% turnout. However, this is rarely the case for spring elections. In February of 2021, the election for state superintendent only drew out a statewide average of 7.2% of voters. Other factors such as weather, attitudes, and dollars spent on advertising have impacted voter turnout.
